Henry David Thoreau and Resistance to Civil Government Essay

Henry David Thoreau was the intimately active participant in the Transcendentalist movement. He was a student and mentee of Ralph Waldo Emerson. While Emerson had enigmatical ideas, Thoreau would act on them and fully drill them. Hence, he matt-up that he and others should last Americas cultivated Government. I heartily accept the motto, That presidency is surfaceflank which governs least and I should like to arrest it acted up to more than rapidly and systematic all in ally. (Thoreau) Thoreau starts out his famous essay with the statement that political relation should be weak and the sight strong.He was a strong advocate of the single(a) the rights of the somebody. To him, a person should be egotism reliant, as Emerson taught. He matt-up that the more citizens relied on their governance for their needs, then the stronger the government would become and that could be dangerous. He felt that being controlled by a government, or whateverthing else for that matter, was a tragedy in a persons lifetime. The main cerebrate that Thoreau wrote Resistance to Civil Government was because he was completely tired of a government that could allow slavery to exist.Slavery was an instauration in the Southern states where people in truth confessed African Americans. He felt that if it was wrong for a government to maintain to much power over the individual and his/her rights, then surely it was wrong for other human to own another. In the excogitation of slavery, the slave has no rights at all. Slaves were do to work extremely voteless. Thoreau had nothing against hard work for an individuals own self-reliance, but the slave did not human action a profit from his/her work.The owner reaped all of the profit. They did not becharm to choose their profession, it was illegal to teach them to glance over or write, many owners beat them, and they could be sold away from their families at any time. The owner controlled everything about them even life and death. Slavery went against everything that Thoreau believed about government and the individual. If it was confessedly that it government should have as littler control as possible, then it was an hatred that this kind of power could control another.Thoreau was so appalled that a government that claimed in its constitution that all men were created equal, could turn a blind eye to the presentation of slavery. He decided that since his tax dollars went to a government that supported such an institution, he would no longer pay his taxes. He hoped that he could inspire others who proclaimed abolitionist thoughts would do the same. However, they did not. In fact when Emerson came to the put to sleep to post his bond, he asked Thoreau wherefore he was in jail. Thoreau responded by asking Emerson why he was not in on that point with him.Thoreaus idea of civil disobedience to a government that is not of the people has been successful for several generations after Thoreaus death. He impacted the lives of such commodious men as Ghandi and the Reverend Martin Luther King, jr. King used Thoreaus method and turned a nation about and forced it to recognize the civil rights of all people by Resistance to Civil Government. Thoreau and his idea of peaceful protest go away remain an affective way to switch over governments for generations to come.